In a round-about effort to end governmental support for LGBT centers on public college campuses, the Texas house of representatives passed a budget provision requiring any school with a gay center to offer the same financial support to a "traditional values" center.

The Texas house passed the budget provision earlier this month by a 110-24 margin, reports Inside Higher Ed. If passed by the senate and signed into law by the governor, the legislation would require equal funding for promoting "family and traditional values." The group that worked with the bill's sponsor is the Young Conservatives of Texas. The group's senior vice chairman, Tony McDonald, admits he hopes, if the bill passes, all public universities in Texas will defund LGBT centers rather than provide equal money for conservative centers — McDonald believed legislation to cut funding from gay centers was less likely to pass, so his group advocated for the "traditional values" centers.

McDonald told Inside Higher Ed that students "who want to promote a homosexual lifestyle" can do so "on their own time and with their own money."

If I ran one of these colleges, I'd establish a "traditional values" center. The traditional values in question would be specifically listed as: loyalty, honesty, courtesy, and fair treatment of other people. Gender and sexual orientation would never be mentioned, because hating gay people may be traditional, but it certainly isn't of any value.

In other words, I'd obey the letter of this unjust law while defying the fuck out of its spirit.

@dionysus: Lady forbid we should ever start a university in Texas! XD We'd break too many fundie brains.

Because counselling and support groups for a traditionally marginalized portion of the population truly needs to be balanced out by college organizations promoting the same old bigotry.

The annoying part is that you know that the far right is going to go on a jihad of sorts once the courts toss this out on its ass. The promotion of "traditional values" boils down to state-sponsored religious indoctrination. The far right loves to try to pass legislation that pisses all over the Constitution so that they can get all up in arms against the "activist courts" once said legislation is declared unconstitutional.

McDonald told Inside Higher Ed that students "who want to promote a homosexual lifestyle" can do so "on their own time and with their own money."

Students who want to evangelize about Christianity, however, can have all the money they want, right?

Also, make sure to inform these "Young Conservatives" that "Conservative" in politics used to mean being for small government, not being spasmodically reactionary towards anything that doesn't conform with the maniacal puritanism that has infested America.

Fine, we'll build traditional values centers where they'll talk about the merits of polygamy, Paganism, and nudity. What? You never specified HOW traditional they needed to be. Like The_L I'd follow the letter of the law but find every way possible not to follow the spirit of it.

Students who want to promote a pro bullshit-mythology lifestyle can do so on their own time and with their own money.
But if you want to take this to its logical conclusion, I'm game. No Christian can ever mention their faith at work, because that is their employer's time. And they can't knock on my door because that is my property and they are taking up MY time. And churches should no longer be tax exempt because they should be using their own money and rendering unto Ceasar, not mooching off the rest of us.

Also, despite you morons' howls of "persecution" when somebody disagrees with you, Christians are not a persecuted minority. Many LGBT students, on the other hand, have had to do with actual, you know, REAL persecution, and can benefit from clubs in which they can discuss their challenges and support each other. And seems like churches aren't exactly throwing their doors open for them, especially not in dumbfuck places like Texas.
Or maybe, just fuck it. How about if someone forms a "Church of The Gay" where people can come and gather and they can get the same tax write-off you fuckers get? I would enjoy that development and the inevitable twist you'd get in your homophobic tightie whities.

"In a round-about effort to end governmental support for LGBT centers on public college campuses, the Texas house of representatives passed a budget provision requiring any school with a gay center to offer the same financial support to a "traditional values" center."

I hope said schools say to said Texas HoR, 'Okay. When fundie churches in Texas give up their tax-exempt status, and start ponying up the funds to said 'traditional values centre(s) - as well as the 'gay centres'. And to generally 'Render Unto Caesar' (i.e. the Federal govt.) just as everyone else has to.

...oh, and it becomes compulsory for the preachers in said churches to preach from "On the Origin of Species", "The God Delusion" etc, and that they must say that God doesn't exist.'

Now, you want to add that amendment to said legislation, or will you just fuck off?

So... it's not fair unless you have a bunch of tightassed young Christians trying to tell everyone that being gay is evil & morally wrong?

Remember, the buzzwords "family" and "traditional values" really means "keeping them damn queers in the closet where they belong, and while we're at it, keeping them damn women pregnant and in the kitchen where they belong."

There's no need for a "traditional values" center since Christians have been the dominating force for most of this country's history while gays have always been the persecuted minority. That's why college campuses have gay centers, as a safe haven for them, so Tony McDonald, you can go screw yourself.

If you do, maybe we can be more harsh on the laws. After all, Mexico's laws (if applied correctly) are better than the U.S.A. (ex. freedom of speech: in the U.S.A. there's freedom of speech. In Mexico there's freedom of speech as long as you don't affect others. That's why in Mexico there'd never be any Westboro Baptist Church or Neo-Nazis). Maybe then we can exterminate the ignorance that has fallen on Texas.